Re:Creators Episode 20 Review

How to kill the unkillable

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Last week Re:Creators proved that it still had enough juice in it to create what was looking to be a grand finale. This week they proved something else, but it turned out to be the complete opposite of last week. This episode feels like the complete culmination of everything that went wrong with this anime after the second half began. The writers basically admitted they’d written themselves into a corner and there was only one way to defeat Altair: a complete deus-ex machina.

          It’s disappointing too, because halfway through the episode I thought they made it clear this was what they were trying to avoid. They summon an out-of-nowhere brand new creation with the same powers as Altair to try and combine the two together…and that’ll destroy her I guess? I dunno, this episode was awfully written when it came to that sort of thing.

          But surprise! Even after it looks like the plan was a success, Altair comes back again and it seems like all hope is lost. Seriously, even if you found her a little too overpowered before, it’s just plain comical at this point. She’s not an interesting or compelling villain whatsoever. She just exists to be an unstoppable force our heroes throw themselves at while she spouts philosophy at them. There’s no depth to the battle because you know the creations can’t win since the writers made her way too broken. It’s just a chore to watch while you wait for the plot to inch forward a little bit.

          So how do we win? Sota seems to have the answer, as he instructs Meteora to add his contribution to the story into the arena. At first it looks like it’s not going to work, but then Magane randomly says her magic words at an airport somewhere and it all turns out okay. Sure, whatever.

          The episode ends with everyone, Altair included, are teleported to the train station where Altair’s creator killed herself, and she appears on the stairs behind them. Hooray, a character we had no idea would be involved with the finale is going to save the day! Aren’t you glad you stuck with this show?

          Maybe I’m wrong and they’ll go a completely different route with it, but if so this episode was an incredibly shoddy way to set things up. Altair feels like a parody of overpowered anime villains instead of an actual menacing character at this point, the random Altair-killer character that has literally no personality (they even bring it up in-universe) had no purpose and only existed so they could fill the 22-minute runtime, and the fact that the writers are implying the only way they can defeat the main villain is through a random character coming out of nowhere with no build-up to their return whatsoever is goddamn insulting.

          I sat through every episode of this show, both the good and the bad. I sure hope the actual ending is better than this awful episode lets on.

FINAL SCORE

1/10

Garbage